Creativity…

Since I have been leading my creative writing group, I have had to be more aware of what I am doing it and how it happens; I have always told stories and written them down, but others have not always been able to do so, or would like to do so but seem stuck unless they are given a task like a piece of homework which might be set by their teacher.

I came across an article which suggested eighteen different ‘habits’ things which creative people have or things that they do. I am going to pass the article to my group, but I have also taken the main points from it and I’ll use it as a basis for our next class, explaining how these ‘habits’ help me to be creative.

Here are the first nine:

1. I daydream.
2. I observe everything.
3. I write when it best suits me; this might be different for other people, but I think I am an owl when it comes to really writing and being creative. Now that I no longer have a day job I can write all the time… and I do! However, late is best for me!
4. I enjoy having periods alone, solitude allows me thinking time, reflecting time, dreaming time, resolving time
5. I try to use difficulties as a positive thing… I am more able to do this now than when I was younger, but I think I always had that glass half-full attitude
6. I’m always up for trying new things, going to new places, doing different activities, eating new foods, cooking unusual recipes… trying to write in different ways, I look for new experiences.
7. The list included the intriguing notion of “failing up.” I struggled for a while to get this, but it means that failure in writing is not bad, especially if you use tit to improve something or make it better. In a simple way, I think every time I rewrite something it is because the first draft has failed; rewriting makes it better… but maybe not good enough and that too might fail. It might take many failures to get something the way you want it!
8. I ask the big questions… and little questions… I had my opticians life story this morning! I’m not going to ‘borrow’ his life for any of my stories, but some aspects might trigger new ideas.
9. I watch people all the time; I don’t mean that I eaves-drop, but if I catch a phrase or odd sentence as I’m walking around, I ponder on it and maybe use it to inspire something. Today a couple of teenage boys in school uniform walked past me and one said to the other “…and Johnny said I had to face her with it, and have it out with her…

If you want to read the very interesting article about this, by Carolyn Gregoire, here it is:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/04/creativity-habits_n_4859769.html